Tag Archives: cio tools

2016 IT Manager Institute training schedule

Posted on February 1, 2016 | Leave a comment

Hello and Happy New Year. 2016 will be my 14th year delivering the IT Manager Institute to managers all over the world via classroom and self study. We also have open slots to deliver the program in the US and Canada when you confirm 6 or more students. Classroom events can be delivered in 3, 4 or 5 days as desired. Contact me at info@mde.net if you are interested in hosting a class for your company or community in the US or Canada.

This year, we will deliver our open classroom programs in 3-day events. The days will certainly be full in order to cover all the material, but this gives you an opportunity to save in registration fees, time and travel expenses.

Plus, we will deliver two Advanced Institute classes following two of our standard IT Manager Institute programs in Dubai (May 25-26) and the US (September 16-17). These programs are for Institute Graduates ONLY.

CLICK HERE for more information or to download a brochure.

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Posted in IT Manager Institute

Tagged cio tools, cio training, dubai training, ict manager training, is manager, it education, it manager education, it manager institute, it manager tools and templates, it manager training, itbmc, mike sisco

Client Satisfaction Survey to assess IT support

Posted on September 30, 2013 | Leave a comment

How well is your IT Support Organization doing?

The real answer lies “in the eyes of the beholder” as they say. What this means here is that your client’s perspective is what’s important, , , not what you and your IT staff think.

I’m not trying to stir up trouble but I do want to make a point.

IT managers usually have the same perspective – almost always they view how their IT support organization is doing this way:

“Our IT employees work very hard and on the right things for our company.”
“Our clients do not understand nor appreciate us.”
“Clients do not do what they need to do to use our technology effectively.”
“We don’t have enough money to do the job.”

Some of this may be true but the bottom line is that when you focus IT support, your client’s perspective is what’s really important.

Do you know what your client would say when asked about their IT support?

There are a few questions you should always have a good grasp about what they will say:

“Is the IT support organization responsive to your needs?”
“Is IT support effective in resolving your technical problems?”
“Is IT support focused on your needs and issues?”
“Are IT support employees professional and courteous in providing IT support?”

At a minimum, you need to evaluate and understand these issues on a somewhat regular basis. To do this, you can use a simple IT Support – Client Satisfaction Survey. There are only 5 questions and requires only a few minutes to complete.

CLICK HERE to download the survey tool.

A STRONG Recommendation in conducting surveys
Rather than sending a survey out and hoping your clients will fill them out and return to you, , , visit or call your client to conduct your survey and fill out the form yourself.

There are several reasons:

You will get a much higher response, , , no one likes to fill out surveys.
If the response is negative, you can ask a follow-up question or ask for an example to better understand your client’s perspective. You will learn much more than if they simply fill out the survey.
Visiting your client and communicating with them one-on-one is always a good thing for you to do.

If you conduct a client survey, be sure to follow-up with results of the survey and actions to be taken to improve IT support. Otherwise, “Why do one?” It helps you gain credibility when you follow-up with specific action items.

Another thing to consider is to conduct your surveys twice a year, , , at least annually, and use the same questions each time. Doing this will help you monitor trends and see if you are making progress in providing support for your clients.

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Posted in IT Manager Tools

Tagged cio tools, client satisfaction survey, it manager templates, it manager tools, it support, it support survey, mike sisco it manager tools

Communicate ‘Cost of Downtime’ to get through to senior managers

Posted on September 30, 2013 | Leave a comment

Have you ever tried to get an infrastructure project funded only to discover that it is like “pulling teeth” to get your senior manager’s approval?

If so, it is probably because your senior manager is having major difficulty understanding what you are talking about. All he hears is that you are asking for lots of money, , , and that’s not something he lets go of without understanding the value of what he will receive from the investment.

Senior executives normally do not understand technology, , , and they don’t want to.

Well, if that’s the case, , , how do you get a technology project funded that’s critical for the stability and support of your infrastructure? You know how important it is but you aren’t getting the message across to your boss, the CEO.

Something that will help is to discuss the project in terms of business value, , , and certainly not in technical terms.

Discuss “WHY”, , , not “WHAT”!

“WHY” deals with benefits, , , i.e., business value. “WHAT” deals with technology.

Unfortunately as former technical people, IT managers tend to discuss the “What” and not the “WHY”. It’s a guaranteed way to put your CEO to sleep or give him a major headache.

Business value includes one or more of five very specific things:

Increase revenue
Decrease cost
Improve productivity
Differentiate the company
Improve client satisfaction

When you change your presentation to highlight the business value your company will receive by making the infrastructure investment, your senior manager hears and understands you, , , and when this happens, he makes a decision that usually goes your way if there is sufficient value for the investment.

A tool that can help significantly is to paint a picture of the ‘cost of downtime’ that your project recommendation will help eliminate.

Calculating “cost of downtime” is straightforward, but first you need to visualize what we are talking about. Below is a simple infrastructure scenario:

In this example, we literally “paint a downtime picture” to show the following:

Corporate HQ Office is home of the Data Center where there are three servers.
There are five remote offices (Atlanta, Denver, New York, etc.)
In each office we list the number of Users (500 at HQ, 100 in Atlanta, etc.)
We estimate the average salary of a company employee is $20/hour.
The green filled circles are routers.
Three downtime scenarios are highlighted:

If the Atlanta office router goes down or they lose connectivity, the productivity loss at 100% is $2,000/hour.

If the HQ router goes down (green filled circle on the Corporate HQ box), all remote offices lose connectivity and 100% productivity impact will be $20,000/hour.

If the E-mail server crashes it affects productivity of all 1,500 workers. At 10% productivity factor, the impact is $3,000/hour.

Using these assumptions you can quantify the ‘cost of downtime’ for any component in your company, , , even a zone printer or a single PC.

Once you and your client can visualize the downtime scenario we created above, you can list key components in a downtime chart and refer to it when trying to justify an infrastructure project.

CLICK HERE to download the Cost of Downtime tool.

Downtime has huge cost and productivity implications for your company. If you need to implement a redundant router at the HQ building to reduce the risk of having a single router point of failure for 1,000 of your remote office workers, it is pretty straightforward and easy to get funded when the CEO sees the potential productivity cost risk of downtime with a single router.

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Posted in IT Manager Tools

Tagged cio tools, cost of time, it manager tools and templates, it support, it tools and templates, mike sisco it manager tools

Big Benefits by Communicating Annual IT Accomplishments

Posted on September 28, 2013 | Leave a comment

Your IT employees need encouragement and reinforcement in the good they are doing and what they are accomplishing. If their IT manager doesn’t make a point to do this, no one will know how much they are doing for your company.

Let me tell you a story from my early years of managing IT.

It was January and I was preparing to hold an Annual Kickoff Meeting for my IT organization. When I worked for IBM several years prior we always held an annual Kickoff Meeting to “energize the troops”, discuss the coming year’s strategies, and to give out a few awards. Our Jackson, Mississippi office combined with the Little Rock, Arkansas and Memphis, Tennessee offices to do this. It was great for building teamwork, getting everyone on the same page for the new year, , , and having some fun. At IBM in those days, we “worked hard and played hard”.

I knew from experience holding an Annual Kickoff Meeting for my IT staff would be a positive motivator. I also knew I would need some things to help me make it a success.

One of the key parts of a successful Kickoff Meeting is recognizing past year accomplishments. So, I began listing the accomplishments our IT organization achieved in the previous year.

I went through monthly reports, looked at my calendar for the prior year, and even reviewed my Notes Log that I maintain in a journal/notebook.

When I completed this exercise, I was shocked!

We had achieved so much more than I realized we had, , , significantly more. I remembered most of the recent projects and accomplishments but had forgotten about many that had taken place six or more months ago.

This made me think, “If I (the manager) don’t fully realize or remember how much we accomplished, it is fairly certain the staff doesn’t either, , , and guess what, our clients definitely won’t realize it.”

It is the manager’s job to help insure clients and staff know how much your team is getting accomplished. If you don’t make this a priority I can guarantee they won’t know and your IT organization will be “under-appreciated”.

It was at this point I decided to track our accomplishments every year so I could keep our clients and staff “in the loop” about how much we get done and the value IT contributes to our company.

A tool I developed tracks our IT achievements for the year.

CLICK HERE to download the template.

This report will help you remember key contributors to the success of your organization and which clients you help by project. The Key Benefits column is great to track the value your IT organization contributes.

Update this report at the end of each month with that month’s achievements and at year-end you will have what you need with zero effort to collect it.

Your employees need recognition, and this simple template will help you collect some of the best recognition material available to you – their achievements.

One last thing, , , the report will help you track IT achievements, but it won’t do you any good unless you make a commitment to communicate the content with clients and IT employees, , , and don’t forget your senior management team. Managers and employees of your company need to know what IT is accomplishing.

Share the information and watch the appreciation level for your IT organization go up.

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Posted in IT Manager Tools

Tagged annual it accomplishments, cio tools, it achievements, it manager, it templates, it tools, it tools and templates, mike sisco it manager tools

Mike Sisco’s Top 15 IT Manager Tools

Posted on June 14, 2013 | Leave a comment

When the Editors of Toolkit Café asked me to provide a list of the Top Ten IT manager tools every IT manager should have, three things happened:

First, I never had really thought about “must have tools” for every IT manager. I had always just focused on individual tools or my entire IT Manager ToolKit.

Second, if we really mean “every IT manager should have them”, then we should create an opportunity so every IT manager can access them, , , so we have, , , read on.

Third, when I tried to identify a Top 10 List, I couldn’t narrow it down to just 10. There are 15 IT manager tools in my IT Manager ToolKit that every IT manager needs and should have.

Let’s start with the list and follow with a short description of each tool and my reasons as to why you need it.

15 Tools Every IT Manager NEEDS

1. IT Employee Skills Matrix
2. IT Training Plan
3. New Employee Orientation Checklist
4. Performance Plan Template
5. Project Schedule Template
6. IT Systems Conversion Project Schedule
7. Move/Relocation Checklist
8. IT Initiatives Portfolio
9. Vendor Support Contacts
10. Escalation procedure
11. Annual IT Accomplishments
12. Client Rescue Guide
13. Cost of Downtime
14. Budget templates
15. IT Support Survey

Every tool can be customized to fit your specific needs and each tool includes instructions to help you use it.

DOWNLOAD MY TOP 15 TOOLS FOR FREE!

Read on for a Description of Each Tool

—

1. IT Employee Skills Matrix

One of the first things you want to do in an IT organization is to conduct an IT assessment. A key component of this discovery process is to determine the capability and capacity of your IT staff. In other words, what can you do and how much can you do in terms of providing IT support.

This simple tool helps you quantify the skills you have and quickly identify the skill gaps that exist so you can prioritize training and education for your team. You can modify it to assess any level of skill you want; use it to quantify both technical and non-technical skills. Learn more.

2. IT Training Plan

Training and education is one of the top motivators for IT employees. It always ranks in the Top 3 reasons employees stay with their company so it’s important to have a strong focus on employee development.

Eliminate knowledge silos and develop depth in your organization with a focused employee training plan when you quantify and prioritize training with this tool.
Learn more

3. New Employee Orientation Checklist

It’s important to help a new employee get started so he or she can become productive quickly. It also has morale implications with your IT team as well as with your new employee that you may not realize.

Use this checklist or modify as needed to show new employees you are organized and help them become part of the team quickly. Learn more

4. Performance Plan Template

(with examples)

IT employees have a strong need to know what it takes to be successful and they want to know if they are. Employee performance planning and review time is some of the highest quality time you have with your employees.

Included are three sample performance plans for a Programmer, Business Analyst and Infrastructure Manager. Learn more

5. Project Schedule Template

The key to gaining IT credibility is delivering projects successfully. You need project schedules to help you manage the project team and complete the tasks on time.

I’ve used this template hundreds of times to manage very large projects. You don’t have to be a PMP to deliver projects successfully, but you do need structure and some simple tools. Learn more

6. IT Systems Conversion Project Schedule

Sooner or later you are going to convert one of your systems to a new platform. This project schedule template provides a generic list of tasks you can use to get started quickly.

In addition, an actual sample system conversion project schedule is included that will provide additional insight into project management. Learn more

7. Move/Relocation Checklist

There is going to be a time when a department of your company needs to relocate. I’ve been in situations where it seemed like someone was moving every week. Nothing hurts IT credibility more than when these relocations go poorly.

Prepare with a move/relocation checklist that helps you support your client by ensuring future relocations go smoothly. Learn more

8. IT Initiatives Portfolio

This little tool is so simple yet powerful. A couple of pages will show everyone how effective your IT organization delivers projects. Summarizes exactly what you need to know in regards to your project initiatives:
• On time
• Within budget
• Results achieved
• Meets client needs
• Successful (Yes or No)
Learn more

9. Vendor Support Contacts

When you need vendor support you often need it fast. Keep your vendor contact information close by and make it available to your Help Desk and all your IT managers. You’re going to need it. Learn more

10. Escalation procedure

There are events that take place when you need to escalate IT support to a higher level such as a remote office losing connectivity, a data interface goes down, or a server crash.

Developing practical escalation procedures puts you ahead of the game when these problems occur and positions your organization to be highly responsive.
Learn more

11. Annual IT Accomplishments

No one knows what the IT organization is accomplishing if you don’t tell them. I was shocked when assembling data for an annual IT Kickoff. We had accomplished so much more than I realized.

Right then I knew that if I had forgotten as the manager, then my clients and senior managers wouldn’t remember either. From that point I began tracking our accomplishments so we could communicate them with all groups in the company. Learn more

12. Client Rescue Guide

Early in my career an unhappy client intimidated me. Maybe that’s happened to you. Over the years I learned that a “problem client” is simply an opportunity in disguise.

Identify the client’s issues and address them and you have a partner instead of a headache. This template walks you through a process to do just that. Learn more

13. Cost of Downtime

Senior managers don’t understand technology nor want to, but you have to gain their approval to fund many technical projects that are necessary for the company.

This can be especially difficult when trying to discuss infrastructure projects, , , executives don’t get “routers and switches”. A tool that can help you is to educate them on the “cost of downtime”.

This practical tool will help you quantify the downtime implications in lost productivity for any technology in your company, even down to a single PC or printer. Learn more

14. Budget templates

Developing an IT budget should be fairly quick work, but it is a long and tiring process for many IT managers. It was for me too until I developed a few templates to help me in the process.

This tool is actually several templates and can help streamline your IT operational and capital budgeting effort. Learn more

15. IT Support Survey

At the end of the day, your client’s perspective of how well your IT organization is performing is your measurement of success. You need to be aware of how they feel about IT performance.

To do this, I use a simple survey like this tool but I don’t send it out and expect to get them completed and returned. Instead, I interview my clients and get much more information.

Use this survey form or modify it to determine client perspectives on:
• IT responsiveness
• IT focus
• IT quality
• IT professionalism
Learn more

SUMMARY
The tools and templates above have helped me significantly, and I hope you receive value in using them.

DOWNLOAD MY TOP 15 TOOLS FOR FREE!
when you subscribe to
ToolKit Cafe

There are over 100 tools and templates in the IT Manager ToolKit. To learn more click here.